Chicken Pot Pie with Biscuit Topping

A couple of summers ago we spent a week at a beach house north of Seattle that belongs to my husband's aunt and uncle. The days were full of wonderful food, fresh-caught crabs, berries picked off the bushes that morning, juicy tomatoes and basil we picked right before using. Last night this aunt and uncle visited us for dinner on their way through town, and I wanted to make something they would be sure to like and also very easy. I settled on chicken pot pie, and chose this recipe from YumSugar (the beginner one, which I heavily adapted). I forgot to thaw the fillo, however, and had to improvise midstream. Fortunately, Faith Durand's new cookbook, Not Your Mother's Casseroles, had just arrived, so I used her biscuit topping recipe for my dish. It was a success!

I chopped up 2 celery stalks, 1/2 an onion and a whole bunch of baby carrots (about a cup chopped) and cooked them in olive oil until tender. Then I added salt, pepper, dried thyme and 2 tablespoons flour.

I deglazed the pan with 1/4 cup white wine, then added 1 1/2 cups milk. Brought to a simmer and let it go for a couple of minutes, until it started to thicken. Then I added 3 cups cooked, chopped chicken and about 1/2 cup frozen peas. I ended up adding more milk at this point. (As long as you add just a little at a time it's pretty forgiving; keep adjusting until the mixture is the way you like it.)

Faith uses this biscuit to top a casserole with fennel, chicken and lemon and nary a pea in sight, but this was a good use, too. I made a half-batch: 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon salt and 2 tablespoons minced parsley, all mixed together. Then I cut in 2 tablespoons cold butter and stirred in 1/4 cup milk.

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